LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty is making a splash in his own back garden after having a temporary training pool craned in.
The 25-year-old, world record holder in 50 and 100 metres breaststroke, accepted with alacrity when offered the loan of a 5.7m long SwimFit ‘flume’ pool to use during the coronavirus lockdown.
The world and Olympic champion had been limited to working out in his garage and doing a daily run as he works towards next year’s postponed Tokyo Games.
“It isn’t exactly my favourite thing,” the 1.91m tall swimmer, who weighs 86kg, told the Times newspaper on Friday. “I’m not built to run.”
Peaty, who is due to become a father in September, was left high and dry after his regular full-sized training pool at Loughborough University was closed five weeks ago.
“It makes a big difference to be in water,” said Peaty, who can swim in the pool with tethers against a current. “I can practise my technique just as I can in a big pool and I work on buoyancy and getting high out of the water.
“I’m in there for an hour a day seven days a week until we can get back to our pool.
“I’m just feeling the water and building that base up. It’s a bit like back to square one.”
Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge